When the front u-joint fails, you need 2 new greasable one and a new centering ball, without the centering ball your shaft will fail.
How much/hard 4wheeling are you doing? If just dirt roads, I would remove the front shaft, shift to high lock and drive on the rear shaft, trail permitting.

 

The fun part of operating in remote areas, you often have to make do. If I were in your situation, I would continue to drive it with just the u-joints replaced, until I could get a new centering kit.
Two things you need to do:
Check the front propshaft every stop or every other stop, but at LEAST twice a day.
If you can get your hands on a syringe and needle (really hard to come by in parts of Afirca I know) you can get some grease in to the center ball. There's a very small hole on the center yoke that will let you get grease in to the back side of the center ball.

I'll call Neapco and Precision Monday for you and see if they have any distributors in Kenya or close.

 

I want to thank the Forum members, especially Disco Mike & Tom Rowe, for the advice on the FDS Assembly Ball Joint. We do appreciate the help.

Here is some additional information but we still have various concerns. Our actual 4-wheeling is occasional but we do use it. We drive slowly (40-60 km/hr over the good dirt roads and 10-20 km/hr over the rough roads --- we are talking two-tracks through lava fields or goat & cattle trails through acacia forests; it can sometimes take us 3 hrs to travel 40-50 km). We don't like breaking down because we are hours and days from repairs that are sometimes questionable at best. Two of us are decent but not professional mechanics (but the Kenyans are very used to non-Kenyans who know nothing, so we are car repair skills are constantly questioned).

First, I was pretty sure that we could take off the entire front drive shaft and use only 2WD in order to get back into town. Quick fix and No problem, eh? However, the Discovery did not move, at all. So is it possible that we have front-wheel drive? Or is the rear drive and the front drive somehow linked?

Second, we do not yet know what will happen when we put it in 4WD. We hope we do not need it for now.

What do you think, can we keep the center ball joint greased until we can replace the drive shaft assembly? we can carry a replacement u-joint which people seem to have but again, no replacement ball joint until we get to one of the larger towns. We normally drive pretty slowly over these roads.

Thanks in advance

 

Like Mike said, you have to put it in 4WD locked to drive with your front propshaft removed. It sounds like what you drive on would be passable with the shaft removed. That would certainly be an option and then just put it back in if you get to a place where you think you might have difficulty crossing.
Are you equipped with a winch? That would probably save you having to put the shaft back in on dicey parts of the trails, provided you have something to anchor to.

 

To drive with either shaft removed in 2WD you have to engage the CDL ( centre diff lock), otherwise you will go no where, to do this on your year / model you have to use a 10mm spanner and engage it manually on the transfer case.

 

Nick, whose centering ball kit do people in the UK use on the front DC? It might be easier for them to find in Kenya, as opposed to the Neapco or Precision kit.

 

Just like he said, you need to engae the center locking differential, that means locking both the front and rear driveshafts together.
The power goes to the path of least resistence, with the front driveshaft removed all of the engines power will go to the front output shaft on the transfer case.
Lock the CDL and then equal power will go to the front and rear output shafts on the transfer case.
Then you can drive it.

Because all we have here in the US are paved roads can you post some pictures of you and your truck and the terrain that you are in?

 

After reading some of the posts here....I just realized that I was driving in Hi-lock with the old front drive shaft still in place for more than a week when I was waiting for my Tom Woods. I didn't get any memo to remove it then driving in Hi-lock.

I hope this will not be a concern in the long run or cause any damages in the future.

 

The only problem with driving with the CDL locked is if you try and park, these things turn like a freight train when locked, you will bind up the gears.
Depending on how far you drove...I wouldnt worry about it.
The only time you want to drive with the CDL locked is on rain, snow, ice, mud, sand, wet grass, etc. Any place that is real slippery and requires all the traction that you can get.
Use lo-locked for pulling the boat out of the lake, use hi-locked when the Skyway has not been plowed or salted.
And whatever you do, you MUST shift though all the transfer case gears once a month to keep the CDL working the way it should, you dont need to leave the garage, just move the shifter though all the gears making sure that they all engage, if you dont do this then when you do need it it wont work because it will be seaized from corrosion.

 

The thing is, I drove at highway speeds and lots of parking in and out for nearly 2 weeks.